The Missouri House of Representatives launched an investigation in January after receiving a complaint about Rep. Wiley Price, D-St. Louis, allegedly having sex with an intern. The bipartisan House Ethics Committee released a report today detailing the investigation.According to the report, Price allegedly shared with his legislative assistant that he had sex with an intern and Price attempted to intimidate the individual into lying to an investigator and the Ethics Committee. Price reportedly threatened to fire his assistant if she did not comply and said “where I come from, people die for doing sh** like this”.
Rep. Wiley Price, D-St. Louis (Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications)
Under oath, Price denied having sex with the intern. He said the assistant made up the story in retaliation to losing her job, but he did not inform appropriate House staff that he gave notice to his assistant.
The committee subpoenaed phone records between Price and the intern and found several calls and text messages had been exchanged. Details of their text conversations were not included in the report.
The Ethics Committee recommends that the full House:
*Publicly condemn Price
*Require him to pay the investigation’s fees of more than $22,000
*Ban him from having an intern for the remainder of his time in the House
*Remove Price from the committees he serves on
According to the report, Price was given until 1 p.m. today to resign. He did not meet the deadline. Instead, he faces the recommendations listed above.
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, released the following statement:
“Now that the House Ethics Committee investigation is complete, the next step will be for the full House to evaluate the evidence and determine the appropriate action. We expect that process to be conducted in a swift and fair manner when the legislature reconvenes in January,” she said.
Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Republic, issued the following statement:
“The disgusting behavior of Rep. Price that was uncovered by our bipartisan House Ethics Committee cannot be tolerated. House Minority Leader Crystal Quade must immediately denounce the behavior of Rep. Price and investigate whether any other members of her caucus had knowledge of the affair or cover-up. She should not allow Rep. Price to continue to caucus with the Democrats in the Missouri House,” he said. “It’s clear the training and policies that were put in place to prevent this type of abhorrent behavior were lost on Rep. Price. With his completely inappropriate behavior, Rep. Price failed his staff, the Missouri House of Representatives, the Missouri Democratic Party, and the constituents he was elected to serve. I call upon Minority Leader Quade to take responsibility for the actions of her caucus members and institute changes to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Rhetoric is meaningless without action. It’s time for Minority Leader Quade to act.”
During a COVID-19 briefing today, Gov. Mike Parson was asked about the investigation. He told reporters he didn’t know anything about the report and did not comment.
Price was at the Missouri Capitol Monday and participated at a hearing about a controversial resolution involving the presidential election results.
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